Happy Birthday, Australia (for today)! :-)
Sorry that I forgot to write an blog last week - I just completely forgot (shame on me). It's been a busy two weeks! A week ago Tuesday, I had a doctor's appointment to get my second sebaceous cyst taken out. This was the largest one and was on the top of my head. Before freezing my head, he had to cut away the hair around the cyst - before he did it, he said to me that he wasn't a hairdresser. I told him that I didn't care what it looked like, so away he snipped. I absolutely hate needles (he had to give me four in my head to freeze it) and so Belinda, the nurse, held my hand while the doctor jabbed me. (I admit it...I am a big sook). Last time, only the fourth needle hurt, but this time they all hurt, so I was very happy when they were all over. When the doctor thought it was frozen, he must have started cutting me cuz he asked me if I could feel it. I said 'no' and then asked him if I should. He laughed and said 'no'. I was a bit confused at first cuz I thought by the way he asked the question that maybe I should be feeling something. Once he got the cyst out, he asked if he could show it to me - I said 'yes'. It looked like a smooth, beige rock - he said it was an inch across when he measured it - a big one! After he stitched me up, he sent me on my way with instructions to not wash my hair until Friday (I also couldn't go to aquafit until the stitches were taken out :-( I was feeling a bit weak after all that and so I spent the next two days resting in my big chair in the family room. I only had to take 2 Tylenol (one the first night and one the second night), so I was really glad about that. When I went back on Friday for the doctor to check how my head was looking, he asked me how things were going. I told him that other than my hair being disgusting and my head itching like crazy, I was good. He was happy with that and also with how my head looked, so I was able to wash my hair when I got home (yippee!). I went this past Friday to get the stitches out - Belinda did it after the doctor okayed how things were looking. I am glad it's done and that things went so smoothly. It will take ages and ages for the hair which he cut to grow back in, but I can do a combover right now so that you can't see where the hair was cut.
By Saturday I was feeling pretty good (although my head was sore), so we asked the missionaries to come over for dinner. Elder Packer is lactose intolerant, so we have to cook without dairy products - we love dairy, so it's a bit challenging to find different things for us to cook for him. We decided that night to cook a chicken stir fry (and made it even easier by using a store bought sauce and frozen vegetables). I really like having the missionaries over for dinner. I love the spirit that they bring to the home and also the spiritual message they bring to share with us each time. I also like feeding them since I know that they wouldn't likely eat very well if they weren't invited out for dinner (being 20 year old males :-) I did ask them what they eat when they don't have a dinner appointment and Elder Packer said oatmeal and Elder A said noodles. :-)
On Monday, we drove to Brisbane because Dad had a doctor's appointment with a specialist. Our doctor here in HB, Dr. Schnetler, was a bit concerned with how large Dad's prostate was and wanted him to see Dr. Kua in Brisbane as he is a top notch specialist in this area. Brisbane is a 3 1/2 hour drive from HB, so we set off in the morning around 10am, stopped in Gympie (1 1/2 hr drive) for a 15 minute break to stretch our legs, then stopped again at Dad's work (2 hr drive from Gympie) to talk with Dad's boss. It was really nice to see everyone again and we had a nice yak with everyone at QAC. Dad has two bosses: Harry (the dad) and Chris (the son) and Chris (who is the one who organizes who is going to teach what when) was still on holidays, so we really didn't find out any more about when Dad would be teaching. We got to Dr. Kua's office early and ended up waiting 1 1/2 hours past our appointment time before we got in. We were then in for 15 minutes (and $180. later). Dr. Kua looked at the ultrasound results which Dad had done in HB and then talked with Dad before telling him that he would like Dad to get an MRI. We asked if it could be done in HB as we know they have an MRI here, but he said no as the one that is needed to be used on Dad is a special one and only available in Brisbane. He said that they need to see all of the prostate before he can make a decision as to what to do next and the only way to do that is with this MRI. The doctor is not concerned that anything is wrong, but he just wants to be sure. The next day, we phoned the hospital where the MRI is to get an appointment (it's a private hospital) and the girl gave Dad an appointment for this Wednesday (and told him it would cost us $570). You should have seen our mouths gaping open when we heard that and also that Medicare (like OHIP) wouldn't cover any of it. OUCH! But, like my doctor said when I asked him about it, it's better to get it done and know that everything is okay.
Dad's boss Chris called Dad on Wednesday to talk to him about the courses coming up which he wants Dad to teach, plus one course that he wants Dad to sit in on (as a student). So, Dad is going to be starting his teaching schedule again on February 10th, this time starting in Sydney. Things are a bit up in the air still, but he gave Dad a tentative schedule. He will be doing one week (possibly two) in Sydney before going to Melbourne to go on a 6 week course about the 737 airplane. Dad is licensed on that plane, but this is an upgrade course for him to take about the new generation 737s. This is a six week course which is all theory. Chris said that he may pull Dad after the first three weeks (and put him on the last three weeks of the course at a later date) so that he can get Dad to work on finishing the last couple of weeks of the theory material for a 747 course. This means that Dad would be planning the course material himself which is something he has never done before. He feels confident, with his experience on the 747 and with his experience teaching, that he will be able to do a good job in the planning. There are a number of other courses coming up to keep Dad busy, but Chris is still working on finalizing the schedules.
One of our New Year's goals is to have people over for dinner once a month and so, on Friday, we had our first 'dinner party' of the year. We invited Robyn and Geoff and our Bishop and his wife, Diana. When they got here, I was in the kitchen and so Dad (who was barbecuing chicken outside) was the host for a while. We decided to eat outside as it was a beautiful day (when isn't it
) and he served them sparkling grape juice. I made a yummy caesar salad with a homemade dressing and served that next. Our main course was the chicken (basted with Diana sauce from Canada) along with corn on the cob, carrots, green beans and french bread. For dessert, I served a mixed berry crisp. When we started eating it, Dad commented that it was a bit tart and that the fruit part wasn't very thick. I then realized that I had forgotten to put the sugar and the cornstarch into the fruit before putting them in the ramekins (I blamed it on Diana who was talking to me while I was making the dessert :-) Everyone said that they liked it the way it was so I didn't feel too bad about it. :-) We had such a lovely time with our friends and look forward to our next dinner party, which is actually going to be this coming Saturday (for our February 'party', as I am leaving to come back to Canada next week and will be away for February and March) when we have invited the missionaries and our friends, Sandy and Lloyd (from church).
On Saturday night, we were invited to Robyn and Geoff's house for dinner with the missionaries. Geoff is the cook in their family and he made us a yummy stir fry. He made two in case Dad couldn't eat the first one. Let me explain....One time when Dad was away working and I wasn't with him for some reason, Geoff, who knows I love curry, made me a green Thai curry which I really enjoyed. But, since Dad doesn't like curry (or rather, it doesn't like him), I didn't know if Dad could handle this one - it doesn't taste anything like the curry Dad can't take, though, so I told Geoff to make it and let Dad try it and see what happened. Geoff, being the kind man that he is, decided to make a shrimp one as well so that if Dad didn't like the curry one, he could eat the shrimp one. It turned out that Dad liked both of them and so he had a feast that night. We are so glad that Robyn and Geoff are back from their trip to Ireland as we missed them a lot. They are going to miss us when I go to Canada and Dad starts working again.
I was in Primary today to teach the Valiant class (ages 8 - 11) as their teacher was away. I was very organized with the lesson, having an activity to start off the lesson (to introduce what we would be talking about), visual aids and a game to check their understanding at the end. There were four boys in the class which I was a bit worried about. One of the boys is very bright and tends to cause a bit of trouble if he isn't continually engaged. Another of the boys is a bit autistic and tends to get off track a bit (and can easily be distracted by the first boy). The other two boys were visitors and so I had no idea how they would be. It turned out that the lesson went fairly well and I only had to get them back on track a couple of times. I find it much easier to teach girls, though - boys are loud and busy and always talking, whereas girls tend to more quiet and focused. The one thing that I did find odd, though, was that three of the four boys struggled to read the scriptures (they are 9 and 10 years old), so it was a bit of a struggle to keep those who weren't reading listening. Note to self: make sure I get them to read short passages next time I teach them or read some myself and ask them to listen for the answer to the question I am asking them.
